Spring Break
Jar with Spikes and Gems
Steve Loucks
Lauren Rose Waters
Issue date: 3/6/09 Section: Art & Entertainment
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The man of the hour is chatting joyfully with professors, students and art admirers. He is an artist who understands what art means to him, on every level of his being.
Steve Loucks is a professor of ceramics at Jacksonville State University and has been for over 20 years.
He said he yearns to, "stimulate students on intellectual and emotional levels. Experimentation, risk-taking, and individuality are encouraged with every student."
When he was a teenager, he was more interested in music, drums to be exact. He wanted to play, but soon encountered a problem in his plan.
The agreement he had reached with his parents about payment on drums and drum sets had quickly become problematic.
He could not afford his half of the payment on the drum he desperately wanted.
During a visit to a friend's house, he ventured to the basement where he found the mother's pottery wheel. He would make his drum instead of purchasing it.
Loucks was a relative amateur at using the pottery wheel. However, he finally created the pieces he needed.
He would build and stack pieces together to create the drum he wanted to originally purchase from the store.
His first piece was the beginning of his love for ceramics and art.
Brayden Huskey, sophomore art major at Shorter College, attended the lecture and said, "His art transcends function to be aesthetically pleasing."
He is truly a nonconformist when it comes to art. He does not allow himself to be boxed in by the rules of art.
Loucks urged the audience of primarily student artists not to fall into that trap, either.
He derives inspiration from everything.
The spiral forms on his pots came from nature. Loucks likened them to the spirals of a seashell or the winding nature of a plant coiling around a tree.
There was a large jug, one of only two in a strangely utilitarian collection from Loucks, sitting near the back, which he addressed.
He said, "These mounds represent jazz notes to me."
Loucks is an artist who truly falls in love with the work he does.
"Every piece of art has their own personality. I decorate them for the party, with different embellishments," he said.
Most of Loucks pieces were for sale to the public. His artwork will be on display in the art gallery until March 20, 2009. Students and professors are encouraged to stop by.
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